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17
Lauren blew out her hair, brushing it until it lay shiny and straight over her shoulders and down her back.She put in her blue and white earrings that mirrored Chinese pottery.They didn’t match her khaki-colored T-shirt dress at all, but once she looped the bright blue belt around her waist, the outfit would come together.
She swept a hint of blue onto her eyelids and applied a deep, dark red lipstick to her lips.It was almost burgundy, and she pressed the creamy stuff between her lips and stepped back from the mirror in the guest bathroom.
Cass’s house wasincredible, and Lauren appreciated the finer things in life.Cass had said she could put a desk in another of the bedrooms for an office, but Lauren didn’t want to impose.She’d put the desk in the same bedroom where she slept, because it was certainly large enough.
Satisfied with her appearance, she stepped out of the bathroom and went across the hall to that bedroom.Her suitcase sat open on the stand, but when she moved in next weekend, she’d actually unpack and hang her things in the closet or fold them neatly and put them in the dresser.Lauren loved clean lines and color-coding everything from her novels to office supplies to the pens she used to sign documents.
She unplugged her phone, though it hadn’t had a chance to fully charge yet, and headed downstairs.Laughter filled the kitchen, and part of her wanted to stay here with Joy, Bessie, and Sage.She loved all of them, and she wasn’t sure why she felt so…hollow without a man in her life.
Even with the boyfriends she’d had and broken up with over the years, she simply knew a friendship wasn’t as close or as intimate as a romantic relationship.At least for her.
Sage whistled as Lauren strutted into the kitchen.She did a model walk in her blue heels, paused, cocked a hip, and then spun so violently she almost fell down.She laughed along with everyone else, and Joy began a slow-clap and a chant.
“Hot-tie, hot-tie, hot-tie,” she said, her face beaming with light.Lauren’s face filled with heat, and she waved off the chant before it could grow real legs.Thankfully.
“You lookamazing,” Joy said.“You had this in your suitcase for this weekend?”
“I had a meeting this morning,” Lauren said.“So I packed the dress.The heels are Cass’s.”She looked down at her shoes.They fit decently well.“And the belt and earrings.”
“No wonder they look so good together.”Joy scanned her from head to toe.“They probably cost more than my house.Each.”
Lauren grinned and shook her head, though Cass didn’t skimp on anything, least of all her jewelry and accessories.She took a deep breath, the moment between her and Joy sobering.She stepped into her and hugged her, feeling the fierceness in Joy’s return grip.“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Don’t you dare,” Joy whispered back, plenty of hardness in the tone too.She stepped back and held onto Lauren’s slight shoulders.“I am okay.I’m jealous, yes, but very happy for you.Blake is handsome and employed, and he doesn’t work for you.”She smiled.“So go have fun, and I’ll be right here on this couch to hear all about it when you get home.”
Lauren nodded, her emotions spiraling up to the top of her head and back down to her toes.She hadn’t experienced this level of excitement about a first date in a while.Usually, a sense of dread accompanied her getting-ready ritual, as she hadn’t met the man in person before, or the conversation via the dating app had been fast and she felt ill-prepared for how the chatter might go.
This was neither of those, and she slicked her hands down the front of her dress and exhaled.“All right,” she said.“I’m off.”
“He’s not picking you up?”Sage asked from her perch on the barstool several feet away.
She shook her head.“We’re meeting this first time.He’s on his way back to the island from…somewhere.So coming all the way to this side of the island—we decided to meet somewhere so we could eat before midnight.”She smiled, because she didn’t mind meeting for a first date.
She headed out amidst good cheers from her friends to have fun, not to kiss him, and to be ready to tell them how it had gone, and she settled behind the wheel of her car, glad to be out of the fray.She understood Cass on a whole new level now, and she should’ve left when Cass did twenty minutes ago.She’d gone to meet Harrison too, so meeting a man for a date wasn’t all that abnormal.
Lauren drove to the appointed restaurant and parked.She’d arrived a few minutes early, nervous as she was, and she told herself, “You’re okay.You’ve already talked to this guy lots of times.”And she liked him.She knew his favorite color—blue—and how he took his coffee—cream and sugar, nothing more.
She knew his middle name—Harvey—and she knew he had two brothers and a sister.She knew their names, and she knew he’d been living on Hilton Head Island for about two decades.He owned a financial planning firm, and he dressed like he had money.A lot of money.
She was suddenly so glad she had access to Cass’s wardrobe to help her dress up her plain clothes.She ran her fingers through her hair and got out of the minivan.Inside the steakhouse, a wall of noise and the scent of salty steak sauce hit her full force in the face.She wanted to walk right back out, but Blake had said this was the best restaurant on the island—and the crowd would probably testify of the same thing.
She waded through the crowd to the hostess station.The woman there looked one breath away from committing homicide, and Lauren had never been happier to have a non-food-service job in her life.“Do you have a reservation?”she asked.
“Yes,” Lauren yelled.“Blake Williams?Should be at seven-fifteen.”
The woman found the reservation, marked it, and looked at Lauren.“We’ll buzz you when the table is ready.”
Lauren took the buzzer and smiled as she moved out of the way.All of the seats and benches had been taken, and Lauren didn’t have a date to cuddle into.She didn’t have a family to laugh with or play a game with as the time passed.She inched her way into a corner where she could see the front entrance, and she waited.
Parties went back, but her buzzer didn’t go off.When it finally did, the clock read seven-forty, and Blake was twenty-five minutes late.He hadn’t texted yet, and Lauren didn’t want to take a table from someone if she wasn’t going to use it.
Her stomach grumbled for food, then flipped and swooped at the thought of sitting down at a table alone.She couldn’t do it.
She moved over to the hostess station and held out the buzzer.“I’m sorry,” she said.“My date isn’t here, so I’m not sure if I should…” She let the words hang there, and the near-homicidal woman now wore sympathy in her eyes.
Lauren’s jaw hardened.She didn’t need that sympathy or empathy.“I’ll let you know when he’s here,” she said, and she dropped the buzzer on the podium.
